


The Starlight Kid

by Maneater



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-10-30 22:51:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10886571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maneater/pseuds/Maneater
Summary: A scavenger is tricked into a suicide mission, but after being trapped in a bunker for a few days he makes an unlikely friend and sets off for some sweet, sweet vengeance.





	1. Meet Meat

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Notes: TSK is set 5 years after the end of Fallout 4. In this canon The Sole Survivor, being the leader of the Minutemen and a member of the Railroad, brokered a treaty between the two and defeated both the Institute and the Brotherhood of Steel. However, instead of destroying the institute the Sole Survivor gathered as many scientific minds as they could and made the institute work for the people. The Sole Survivor destroyed the raider gangs controlling Nuka-World and helped build it up into a thriving trade hub, brokered a peace between Far Harbor, Acadia, and The Children of Atom by replacing Confessor Tectus with a synth, defeated the Mechanist by convincing them to stand down, and completed all of the Vault-Tec Experiments in a way make people’s lives better (chose the kind options). However, about a year after all of the events of Fallout 4 the Sole Survivor set off on a journey west, trying to establish contact with the fabled NCR and hasn't been seen since.

 

For the third time in the past half hour Bradley looked around the bunker to see if there was something he had missed that might help him get out of here alive. He saw the dirty and stained mattress in the far corner which had had a mummified corpse on it when he had found his way into the bunker. Luckily there was a patch of open dirt he had been able to bury it in and a ventilator to get rid of the stink. Beside the mattress was a nearly barren shelf with a few empty bottles and one that was half full of water as well as some boxes with only rotten pre war files in them.. He sat at a steel desk on a slightly rotted wooden chair, beside the hatch to the outside world. He looked at the hatch and remembered what had gotten him into this position in the first place.

He remembered the flashed smile and honeyed words the man who had the the greatest score you would ever need. He’d tell you just for 100 caps. He had stupidly believed it too. He found his way to the building the man had specified. It was 3 stories tall and had the same flaked off white paint as most of the other pre-war houses he had seen. He walked through the gates, checking his corners and made his way into the house itself. He heard a low groan behind him and was knocked off his feet. He rolled over just in time for the ghoul to fall on him ripping and clawing what it could. He managed to push it off of himself and shot wildly at it wasting 3 bullets on the concrete next to its head, before the 4th shot found its mark. He heard more groaning and turned to find 4 ghouls blocking the doorway. He ran further into the winding halls trying to find some escape. He chose a room randomly and locked the door hoping it would hold them off for a little while, just enough time for him to think of a plan.

The room he was in was some kind of study, with 3 bookshelves on the wall to his left a fireplace to his right and a heavy wooden desk directly in front of him. He pushed to desk against the door. He could hear the ghouls banging on it and could tell the wood wouldn't last long under such stress. His eyes frantically looked around the room and he noticed that there was a breeze coming from behind the bookshelves. He ran to it and began frantically pulling as many books off the shelves as he could before he found the book he needed. It was black with a red spine and when he pulled on it, there was a slight click from some mechanism behind the shelf and the door opened forward. A fist broke through the door and the ghouls began roaring for his blood. It was dark in the hallway behind the shelf but he went in anyway, closing the entranceway behind him. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark light and began walking, slowly, down the hallway with his gun drawn. He followed the hallway until there was a two way split. From behind him he heard the sound of his the bookshelf being splintered into pieces and picked the left passageway. As he followed this other passageway he felt the floor begin to slope and could tell he was going down. He brought out the radio and began sending a signal to Gru, the eyebot he had wait outside the estate for him, when he heard a roar from behind him.He ran now, panting his message through jagged breaths. He could hear the ghouls behind him panting and hissing. He tripped, falling on a metal grate. He almost got up and kept running when he noticed there was a handle on it. He pulled the handle and climbed inside the grate.

That was 3 days ago and was starting to wonder if he was ever going to be rescued.The food he had with him ran out last night when he eaten the rest of his dried brahmin. His water wouldn’t last much longer. He looked at his radio, an old pre war model, heavy and as big as a brick while somehow weighing twice as much as one. He thought of the signal to Gru. As near as Bradley could tell Gru had gotten the message, but it still had to get all the way back home. Starlight City was two days walk west but hopefully it could make the journey in one, if it kept going through the night and wasn’t destroyed by some enterprising raider or some other wasteland monster.

Unable to find some way safely out of the bunker, Bradley decided he needed water and sleep more than he needed to worry more about his situation. He drank the last of his water and laid down on the “clean” side of the mattress and tried to forget his troubles long enough to fall asleep. It had almost worked when he began hearing gunshots from somewhere outside.

His eyes shot open and he grabbed his gun, quickly counting the bullets he had left. Three. Enough for him to take someone with him. He heard the roar of ghouls extinguished by the harsh crack of gunfire that was getting closer and closer to him. He aimed his gun at the hatch and tried to keep as quiet as he could. The gunfire stopped. He heard heavy footsteps walking towards the hatch. They stopped on top of it.There was a knock on the hatch.

 “Hullo? Is there Bradley in there?” he heard a gravelly voice say. It was the unmistakable voice of a super mutant.“If you in there, i not going to hurt you. I got you message and wanted to help.”

 Bradley paused and lowered his gun. He was either going to die of dehydration in here or maybe die from the mutant out there, if it didn’t break its way into the bunker.

 ‘Hullo?” he heard the voice say again. “Can’t stay here waiting for you to come out. I not even know if you in there.”

 "Yeah, I’m here.” Bradley yelled. He had decided to take the chance with the mutant.

 “I gon open hatch, okey?” The voice responded.

 “I have a gun if you try anything!” yelled Bradley.

The hatch creaked open and a green head popped inside.

 “Hullo! I’m Meat.” The mutant grinned. “I here to help. I have food and water if you need it. You just have to come out and follow me.” It smiled again before disappearing from the hatch.

Bradley grabbed his bag and walked slowly towards the hatch and began climbing. It was slow going, he was only using one hand, the other was holding his gun. He emerged from the hatch and saw the mutant sat cross legged a few feet in front of him.

“Hullo again!” said Meat.

“.....Hello.” said Bradley.

Bradley fully emerged from the hatch and stood. The mutant stood as well. Bradley raised his gun at Meat and followed his movements.

“I said I not hurt you,” Meat sighed, shaking his head “Humies never trust Mutants.”

“I have a reason not to trust you, i’ve seen what you do to us.” replied Bradley.

“I NEVER hurt humie! You meet bad mutants. They try to kill Meat too.” Meat stated, as if Bradley should already know this. Bradley’s stomach took this as its cue to growl.

Meat’s eyes went wide and it said,“You very hungry.”

It removed a bag from its back and began digging around in it. Finally after a full minute of searching it found what it was looking for. It pulled out a metal lunchbox and held it out towards Bradley. Bradley hesitantly reached out with the hand not pointing a gun at Meat and snatched it out of his hand. Meat looked expectantly until Bradley put his gun in his hip holster and opened the box.

Inside the box was a small box of Sugar Bombs and a small bottle of water. Bradley looked up suspiciously at Meat and saw It was grinning back at him. He set the lunchbox and water bottle on the ground and opened the box of Sugar Bombs. They were even in a sealed bag. He looked up at Meat, eyes wide.

“Do you know how much a sealed bag of Sugar Bombs is worth?!” He said.

Meat looked at him, his face a mixture of confusion and happiness.

“What use does I have for caps?” said Meat.

Bradley looked down again at the bag in his hands. His stomach growled again. Even though he knew he could get at least 30 caps for just this small bag, he opened the bag and began eating the pre-war cereal. Despite its 200 year old vintage, the cereal was as fresh as the day it had been packaged and Bradley quickly ate the whole bag, licking the inside to get all the food he could. Meat chuckled and said “ I do that before but my Da said it's bad manners.”

Bradley grabbed the water and lunch box off the ground, handing the box to Meat. As he drank the water he looked at Meat again, this time actually trying to figure out where the mutant had come from. He saw now that it was wearing clothing and fitted armor, made with care not the brute force mutant armor is usually made of. Its bag was a simple burlap but had adjustable straps and multiple pockets. Bradley’s gaze fell upon a gun on the ground. It wasn't the usual pipe weapon mutants had cobbled together or stolen from raiders or settlers they killed. It was Thin barreled and long, with a drum magazine sticking out of the bottom. It had a complicated stock, made of plastics and metal and looked like someone had designed it specifically for someone of a mutant’s size.

“I see you like Gun. My Da maked it for me for my birthday. He says that i gotta use it to help people or else it stop working. I dunno if that how guns work but i take Da’s words to heart. I only help people with Gun. No hurt. Unless need hurt people to help,”said Meat “You follow I now, we go back to Da. He have you Robit.”

Meat picked up Gun and began walking back towards the entrance to the tunnel, stepping over a dead ghoul on it’s way. Bradley followed, observing as the mutant made its way out of the building. It had to duck its head several times to avoid hitting doorways. As they exited the building Bradley saw that the sun had just risen. They passed many more ghouls than bradley had first seen, and he knew had had made the right choice to run away. They walked through the front gate and began walking towards the east.

“I came from that way.” Bradley said, pointing towards the west.

“Meat come from that way too, a long time ago.” Meat replied.

They walked until the sun was high in the sky. Meat slowed to a stop in the middle of the ruined road they had been following.

“We only a few minutes from Home now. Da say to tell you not to judge him when you see him, he say that just ‘cause he ugly don’t mean he ain’t nice.”

Meat continued walking again as they climbed over a hill, Bradley saw what he assumed was Meat’s home. It was built in the ruins of a Red Rocket, with a fence around it. There was a small field just inside the fence where he saw a Mister Handy tending to the fields.

They walked up to the fence gate and Meat yelled over it “I HOME DA!”

There was a second before the gate slid open and Meat stepped inside. A man appeared in the doorway of the building and walked towards them. As the man got close, Bradley saw that he was in fact a ghoul. He wore simple clothing, a stained t-shirt and jeans and on his face was a pair of wire framed glasses with 3 adjustable magnifiers. Meat dropped his bag and gun and jogged the rest of the way to meet the man. He grabbed him in a bear hug as soon as he got to him.

“Da I misseded you so much while i was gone! I was so worried about you.” Meat said.

“Son, im fine. I can take care of my own damn self, now put me down ya big lug, we have company.” The man said. Meat let go of him and turned towards Bradley.

“This my Da! He the one who catch you message and tell me to go help you!” Meat  said through a smile.

The man smiled sheepishly and said “My name’s Daryl,” he stepped forward and extended his hand. “ I know we ain’t the most conventional of families but i love Meat and i want to see the world do right by him. And they aint gonna trust him unless he does good things first.” he continued.

Bradley shook Daryl’s hand and said “ Thanks for the rescue, i’m not sure my people could have fought through that to even get to me. Meat said you have my bot? I would sure like to get him back so i could be on my way.”

Daryl smiled slyly.

“Here’s the thing. If i want my boy to be treated well, then people are gonna have to see him do good. Or at least see someone else who witnessed him do said good. I ain’t gonna hold your bot hostage but if you want i can do some work on it. Free of charge. Upgrade its weapons, its thrusters, you name it. All you gotta do it take my boy with you when you go.”

Meat looked at Bradley, its eyes begging him to say yes. Bradley looked between the ghoul and the mutant, studying them both. He could see no ill will on either face. And he definitely wanted those upgrades.

“Fine, ill take him with me.” he said.

The mutant and the ghoul both grinned.

“You won’t regret this.” said Daryl.

Bradley thought of the con man who had swindled him and nearly gotten him killed.

“I’m sure i won’t.” He smiled.


	2. Bye!

#  Chapter Two

Bradley awoke to sunlight streaming down on him from one of the many holes in the tin roof of the shack behind the red rocket station. He looked up at them for a few minutes, thinking of how they looked like the st- his introspection had been interrupted by the loud snore of Meat. The mutant had let bradley sleep on his bed while he slept on the floor.  He rolled his eyes and realised he wouldn't be able to fall back asleep.

He rose from the bed and laced his boots before stepping around Meat’s large body, pushing on the reclaimed wooden door of the tin shack. He looked around the small fort. The fence probably went around 1342 or so square feet and the 3 buildings in it were spread almost equally as if at the far points of a triangle. The first was the building he had slept in, nothing more that tin walls with a tin roof just big enough for a person to sleep under on the dirt floor. The second was the pre war building. He had read that these were where the large steel vehicles he had seen laying around the wastes recharged their batteries. It had lost its signature red rocket some time ago, either from scrappers wanting it for parts or simply the natural erosion of the wastes. Otherwise it was the same as any other he had seen before. He began walking to the building then. The final building was another shack like the one he had slept in, but when he had looked inside, he saw it was filled with farming tools,fertilizer, and a small charging port for the Mr. Handy he had seen the night before. 

He waved at Bodsworth before walking into the concrete building. The air inside the building was cooler on the inside, because Daryl had fixed the climate control for the building. He wfollowed the long hallway lit by the fluorescent bulbs and into the workshop.

“I told you your master's outside, if you wait just a minute i'm sure he’ll come pick you up! I still have some work to do on you so you're not going anywhere.” Daryl said, quietly to the eyebot on the bench. Seeing bradley the eyes bot began beeping in joy. Daryl looked up.

“Mornin’ kid,” He said while applying solder to a wire “Just finishing up here. You and Meat will be on your way soon enough.” he said. 

“I’ll wait.” said Bradley. He leaned against the wall by the door and looked around the workshop. There were a few robot parts scattered around the room. A Sentry Bots torso, a Protectrons legs, and even the head of an Assaultron sitting next to the garage door switch. A few minutes passed before Bradley heard the door open and the loud steps of Meat stepping down the hall. 

“Has you seen Bradley, Da?” He asked walking past bradley and up to his father. 

“Meat, you walked past him when you came into the room....” Daryl replied, concern in his voice. Bradley coughed and Meat turned around. Seeing Bradley a huge grin spread across his face, which some might have called ghastly. 

“Good Morning, Friend! Said Meat. He walked to bradley and opened his arms for a hug. Bradley looked into the loving and expectant eyes of Meat and relented, allowing himself to be brought into a bear hug the lifted his feet from the ground.

“Boy, put him down,” said Daryl “ He can’t breathe, ya big lug.”

Daryl stood from his stool and flipped a switch on the Gru’s back allowing the eye bot to engage its thrusters and rise into the air. It beeped happily before moving to Bradley, who had been put back on the ground and nudged his hand. Bradley rolled his eyes and rubbed the top of the eye bot. 

“I guess i'm ready to leave then,” He said, “Unless you and meat want to talk for a minute?”

Daryl looked to Meat. Meat looked to Daryl.

“Dont. Die.” They said simultaneously.

Daryl looked to Bradley’s bewildered face and said “It's a thing i do okay? My Ma taught me.”

“Ok.” said Bradley.

“I know it's different-” said Daryl.

“ I said Ok.” interrupted bradley before walking out the door with his eye bot trailing behind and his bag slung over his shoulder. 

Daryl looked back at Meat.

“ Meat, please. I’ll miss you a lot and i do-”

“I know, Da. I love you too.” Meat said. 

Meat grinned quickly at his father before walking out of the room.


End file.
